The invention relates to a molding composition comprising polyester or its blends with other thermoplastics in the presence of a fluidity enhancer to decrease melt viscosity and improve processability.
Polyesters, copolyesters and their blends with other thermoplastics are employed in making injection molded parts, films, blow-molded goods, pultruded sheets etc. These articles are used in automotive, electrical and electronic applications. The mechanical strength, electrical insulation and easy processability are some of the key characteristics of polyesters, which enable their use in these applications. The current industrial trend is about fabrication of parts with complicated and fine designs with small flow cross-sectional areas, where fluidity of conventional polyesters has been found inadequate.
To address the demanding requirements of high melt flowability, a polyester resin can be replaced by another polyester resin having lower viscosity, but such low viscosity polyester adversely affects the mechanical strength of the molded parts. The challenge therefore is to achieve high flowability of polyester molding compositions without affecting their mechanical strength.
Among the various approaches known in reducing the melt viscosity of polymers such as polyamides and polyphenylene ethers, the use of flow-enhancing hydroxyl compounds is one of them. It has the potential to provide the advantage of not having the need to modify the polymers and hence offers the scope of retaining most of the mechanical properties if used in effective small amounts. The following is a discussion of prior art in this area.
A U.S. patent publication, U.S. Pat. No. 6,822,025 discloses the flow enhancement of a flame retardant composition based on polyphenylene ether/polystyrene resins by using polyhydric alcohols such as pentaerythritol, dipentaerythritol, pentitols, hexitols or saccharides as a flow-enhancing additive. The '025 patent discloses that about 20% flow enhancement is achieved without loss of mechanical properties. However, as per '025 patent, the flow dependence is nearly independent of the amount of pentaerythritol used beyond 0.5% usage of pentaerythritol.
A European patent publication, EP 1 041 109A2 describes the flow enhancement of glass filled polyamide compositions by using a polyhydric alcohol having melting point between 150 and 280 deg C., for example, pentaerythritol or dipentaerythritol. In polyamide compositions, both pentaerythritol and dipentaerythritol showed identical flow enhancing effects. In their study they also demonstrated that simple diol such as 1,6-hexane diol is not effective as a flow promoting additive.
A European patent publication, EP 0 682 057A1 describes the flow enhancement of polyamide and polyester compositions with retention of mechanical properties by using dendrimeric additives. Dendrimeric compounds in general are prepared in several separate steps from basic raw materials and are expensive.
A Japanese patent publication, JP 10310690 discloses the use of pentaerythritol or 1,1,1-tris(hydroxymethyl)ethane and 1,1,1-tri(hydroxymethyl)propane in a polybutylene terephthalate resin for enhancing melt flow. The effect of these flow enhancing additives on other properties of the matrix resin and the effect of other ingredients in the formulations were not disclosed.
Aside the above references on the flow enhancing properties of polyhydric alcohols such as pentaerythritol, a few other polyester flame retardant compositions have been known where pentaerythritol has been disclosed as a char-forming additive. The char formation from polyhydric alcohol in the presence of acidic compounds is well documented in literature.
The U.S. patent publication, U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,245 describes the use of pentaerythritol, dipentaerythritol or tripentaerythritol as a char-forming additive in polybutylene terephthalate resin containing melammonium pentate as flame retardant. No flow or mechanical properties of these compositions were described in this '245 disclosure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,344 discloses the use of pentaerythritol as a char former in polyester composition containing hexavalent sulfur compound as a flame retardant, in addition to other components such as reinforcing fillers, fluoro polymer as a flow-enhancing additive etc. No mention of heat-ageing stability of such compositions, nor flow enhancement due to pentaerythritol were disclosed in this publication.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,419 discloses the use of pentaerythritol as a char former in a polyester composition containing glass or mineral reinforcing fillers along with a melamine polyphosphate as a flame retardant material. No effect on flow or mechanical properties or heat-aging stability were disclosed in this patent publication.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,879 discloses the use of pentaerythritol or dipentaerythritol or 1,1,1-trimethylolpropane in a flame retardant polyester composition containing halogenated flame retardants in combination with a synergist, antimony trioxide. Neither the flow enhancement due to these polyhydric alcohols nor the effect of other ingredients on the flow-promoting role of these additives was disclosed in this publication.
Flow promotion in the case of polyphenylene ether/polystyrene could be a result of plasticizing action of polyhydric alcohol melts formed at high temperatures prevailing in processing conditions. A hydroxy functional molecule may not react with polyphenylene ether derived from dialkyl phenols or polystyrene derived from styrene monomers, as these polymers do not have reactive functional groups that can react with a hydroxy group. Similar scenario prevails in the case of polyamides, as alcoholysis of amide group is usually difficult (Smith and March, p. 488, Advanced Organic Reactions-Reactions, Mechanisms, and Structure, John-Wiley, 5th edition, 2001) and requires highly reactive catalysts such as titanium tetrachloride or triflic anhydride. The added polyhydric alcohols could remain as plasticizing domains in polyamide media thus giving rise to flow improvement of polyamides as suggested by the melting point range preference for the added polyhydric alcohols in polyamide compositions (reference: EP 1 041 109A2). On the contrary, flow promotion in polyesters by use of polyhydric alcohols poses special challenges owing to the propensity of polyesters to undergo reactions with hydroxy with a likelihood of changes in mechanical properties of polyesters. From our study on the effect of ingredients on flow promoting properties of some hydroxyl or amino functional molecules, we report herein surprising improvements on the flow and thermal ageing resistance properties of polyester compounds without sacrificing mechanical properties due to inventive compositions disclosed herein.